Raw vegan truffle balls and The Sweet Swap

The blogging community is an amazing thing. I’ve met so many incredible people through blogging and some have become life long friends. I was really excited when bloggers, Sara of Belly Rumbles and Amanda of Chew Town announced that they were hosting The Sweet Swap for Australian food & lifestyle bloggers!

The concept behind The Sweet Swap is that each blogger is matched with three other bloggers who each mail off parcels of homemade sweets to their matches. I loved the surprise factor involved. None of us knew who had us, only who we had to send sweets to!

What hooked me onto The Sweet Swap though, was that it was partnering with ChildFund, an organisation which works to eliminate the effects of poverty for children in developing
countries. One of the focuses of their work is nutrition and food
security. Our registration fee for The Sweet Swap was donated to
help improve nutrition for children and their families.

I’m not very good at making sweets at all, as it often involves measuring ingredients and following a recipe with careful precision. I’m the type of carefree home-cook who likes to cook on a whim. Things have been crazy on my end lately, so the last thing I wanted was a dessert flop in the kitchen. It wouldn’t be fair if my three matches received no sweets at all! Paired with my recent weight loss success (I’ve lost 10kg since my heaviest last year!!), I decided to try a few recipes from Raw Food by Erica Palmcrantz and Irmela Lilja and spread the joy of eating super healthy. Healthy doesn’t have to be boring.

I couldn’t decide between three recipes so ended up making them all! My trio of raw vegan truffle balls were:

Cashew, lime and coconut (my fave of the three!)

Black sesame, anise and carob “licorice”

Ginger, cinnamon, fig and walnut

I can’t stress how easy these are to make. Once you have all the ingredients laid out, it’s just a matter of throwing them into the food processor!

They’re so nutritious and really do hit the spot when you reach three-thirtyitis.

Cashew Balls with Lime and CoconutRecipe from Raw Food by Erica Palmcrantz and Irmela Lilja

Jennifer is the founding blogger of I Ate My Way Through (originally, Jenius.com.au).
Growing up in the multicultural melting pot of Sydney’s Inner West as a second generation Australian (of Vietnamese refugee parents of Teochew Chinese ancestry), Jen has always had a deep curiosity about global cuisines, culinary heritage and the cultural assimilation of immigrants. For Jen and her family, food is always at the centre of all celebrations, life events and milestones.
A lover of the finer things in life, as well as cheap eats, her blogging ethos is all about empowering and inspiring people to expand their culinary repertoire.
When not running her two companies (she is also the Managing Director of The Bamboo Garden online marketing agency), Jen can be found exploring old-world charms at vintage markets and delving into local eats around the world. She has a weakness for fried chicken.

Oh wow!! These treats look amazing. I’m always looking for healthier alternatives. I think I’ll have to make a bunch of these and take them to work for morning and afternoon tea! Thanks so much for participating this year.

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